Bone marrow donor recruits others to join registry

Houston postal worker enlists his colleagues to join national registry

Published 6:30 am, Saturday, November 12, 2005

About seven years ago, the 55-year-old Houston postal worker gave blood at work. Nurses pricked his finger to get an extra drop of blood to test his compatibility with people who needed bone marrow transplants.

Six months later, because antigens in their blood matched, he was asked to donate bone marrow to a Utah teen near death from leukemia.

Thanks to Rodriguez, Drew Gushwa now looks forward to a long, healthy life.

"It's beautiful," Rodriguez said. "You know you saved someone, at least gave them a chance at life. There is hope in that drop of blood."

He was honored as one of the group's top recruiters at a gala in Washington, D.C., earlier this week.

"A guy like him, he can leave a legacy behind that few of us have an opportunity to do," said Dave Lewin, U.S. Postal Service spokesman in Houston.

Rodriguez, who graduated from San Jacinto High School in 1970 and who has worked with the post office for 28 years, has been especially successful recruiting minority groups that are underrepresented in the program, said Helen Ng, program spokeswoman.

Of the people he has recruited so far, 21 percent are Hispanic.

Crucial donations

The donor registry allows patients and their physicians access to 10 million potential bone marrow donors worldwide. Such donations are crucial to help those with blood and immune system diseases, such as leukemia and lymphoma.

The program began working with the U.S. Postal Service in 1997 because the organization is one of the largest civilian employers in the country, Ng said.

Ng said people interested in donating can contact the program at 800-marrow2 or www.marrow.org.

Rodriguez said that when his bone marrow was harvested, it was drawn from his pelvis through two small incisions in the small of his back. He recalled slight discomfort for a few days, but said it was worth it because he knew that the recipient would get a chance to live.

"I didn't even think twice about it," said Rodriguez, who earned an associate's degree in real estate from Houston Community College.

Rodriguez met Drew and his parents in 2000 during a national postal service event in San Diego.

"He was just overjoyed," Rodriguez said. "We were crying like two little kids."

The married father of an 8-year-old son, Rodriguez has been a postal clerk and data technician. Now, he said, his full-time job is recruiting bone marrow donors at the post office.